In any area that is threatened by occasional earthquakes, it is important that items that are normally stored on shelves remain on the shelves during a quake. This applies to books in libraries and schools and also to bottled and canned goods in stores and in the pantry. A strong earthquake may empty many grocery shelves and result in a great loss to stores, and also may empty a library shelves resulting in costly restoration of the library and possibly an injury or loss of life to anyone browsing in the stacks.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a temporary gate that pivots down in front of the items on the shelf to prevent the items from being shaken from the shelf and which may be readily lifted for removal of an item.
It is an important object of the invention to provide a shelf restraint that may be easily added to an existing shelf while requiring a minimum of shelf space.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a shelf restraint that is suspended between bookends and which may occupy only a portion of a shelf.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent in reading the specifications.